[Stars and Stripes] CICERO, N.Y. (Tribune News Service) ‐ A New York man who police have accused of impersonating a CIA agent to impress a woman works for the New York Air National Guard as a drone camera operator, according to a New York Air National Guard spokesman and an Air Force website.
Staff Sgt. Ryan R. Houghtalen, 25, was charged with second-degree impersonation of a public servant, a misdemeanor, according to court records.
After showing the woman a fake CIA ID, Houghtalen told the woman how he was currently targeted by terrorists.
"He was telling her his job as a CIA agent is very dangerous," said New York State Police spokesman Jack Keller. "He was hoping to use that information to start a relationship with her."
Houghtalen told the woman he met at church that, because he was a CIA agent, both he and her were targets of ISIS, according to court documents.
#3
I'm very sorry Airman Houghtalen, the Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS) indicates your security clearance has been revoked. You've been reassigned to the squadron motor pool as a driver.
#8
Bill Paxton, definitely an interest multiplier. True Lies wouldn't have been True Lies without him. Would Aliens have been the same without how he delivered Hudson's one-liners? Would Twister even be watchable without his lead?
#9
Even nailed the radar operator in the movie Commando. Hey, that is two Commando references in a 24 hour period, but you ask, "So how does this all connect to Kevin Bacon?"
[SF Gate] The Napa County Sheriff's Department released body camera footage of the fatal shooting of an armed suspect by one of its deputies.
"This Body Worn Camera footage depicts the Attempted Murder of Napa County Sheriff's Deputy Riley Jarecki on February 17th, 2019. The decedent, Javier Hernandez Morales, fired the first shots," the Department wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday.
The department warns that the video is graphic, and not suitable for children. It can be seen below.
The office had previously said in a statement the man fired at least one shot from his parked car at the deputy Sunday night.
#4
Nope, gorb. Everyone is exactly the same, which is why we must have diversity quotas to make sure we have the exact perfect ratios of identical persons to other identical persons.
[The South African] South Africa celebrates Armed Forces Day on 21 February in remembrance of the SS Mendi tragedy which occurred more than a century ago.
In 1917, a military frigate, carrying 616 South Africans belonging to the Native Labour Contingent, was struck by calamity en route to assist the British War effort. Approximately 19 kilometres South of the Isle of Wight, a cargo ship three times the size of the SS Mendi, the SS Darro, collided into the troopship. Daro survived the collision and continued onto Argentina – the Mendi sank to the bottom of the ocean, taking with it 616 South Africans and 30 crew members.
[BBC] A fast-moving fire swept through a historic district of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, killing at least 78 people, officials say.
The blaze broke out at night in a residential building that had flammable material stored on the ground floor.
Members of a bridal party are thought to be among the victims. It is not yet clear what started the fire.
The centuries-old Chawkbazar district has narrow streets and buildings very close to each other.
Large building fires are relatively common in densely populated Bangladesh, owing to lax safety regulations and poor conditions. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years.
On Sunday, a fire in a slum in the coastal city of Chittagong killed at least nine people.
[Hurriyet] As tensions in Venezuela mount ahead of a Feb. 23 showdown over humanitarian aid, Russian state news agencies said on Feb. 20 that a Russian shipment of medicine and medical equipment had arrived in Venezuela.
The reports did not give the size of the shipment or say what it contained, though they cited a diplomatic source as saying the delivery was made under the aegis of the World Health Organization.
Hours earlier President Nicolas Maduro had said 300 tons of medicine and other aid was on its way from Russia.
Russia is an ally of President Maduro, who is under challenge from opposition leader Juan Guaido in a resurgence of the country’s political crisis.
Guaido has called for "caravans" of tens of thousands of Venezuelans to join forces on Feb. 23 to carry the U.S. aid from Colombia into Venezuela, despite Maduro’s objections and the barricading of a key bridge linking Venezuela and the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where the aid is stored.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2019 14:00 Comments ||
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#2
...We have the ability to jam and override every blessed radio and OTA/satellite TV channel going in and out of Venezuela - use it to show the people what their leaders are doing to them.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/21/2019 16:59 Comments ||
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[NYT] PAMPLONA, Colombia ‐ The walking began before dawn: before the clouds broke against the mountaintops, before the trucks took over the highway, even before anyone in the town woke up to check the vacant lot where scores of Venezuelan refugees had been huddling through the night.
Children, grandmothers, teachers, nurses, oil workers and the jobless had all sprawled there together ‐ bound by a collective will to put as many miles as possible between themselves and the collapsing country they had fled.
All but Yoxalida Pimentel. She could not take another step.
"After so many hours of walking, after days, nights, sun, cold, rain ‐ I lost my baby," she said, crying alone the morning after her miscarriage.
The economic crisis that has engulfed Venezuela under President Nicolás Maduro has set off a staggering exodus. The economic damage is among the worst in Latin American history, researchers say, with more than three million people leaving the country in recent years ‐ largely on foot.
#UPDATE: Commander of #US Southern Command in a statement told the military of #Venezuela they will be responsible for their actions and to do the right thing as the date for humanitarian aid to enter #Venezuela is just days away. -Gage http://t.co/sz22H5Ploy
[DAWN] Venezuela's military said on Tuesday it was on alert at its frontiers following threats by United States President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... and suspended air and sea links with the island of Curacao ahead of a planned aid shipment.
Opposition leader and self-declared interim president Juan Guaido has vowed to bring aid in from various points Saturday "one way or another" despite military efforts to block it.
But commanders doubled down on their allegiance to President Nicolas Maduro Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy... after Trump urged them to abandon him.
"The armed forces will remain deployed and on alert along the borders... to avoid any violations of territorial integrity," said Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2019 00:00 ||
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[Seattle Times] U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Wednesday that Central American nations have agreed to do more to stop migrant caravans and fight transnational crime.
Nielsen spoke in El Salvador’s capital during a meeting with her Central American counterparts to discuss a regional security plan to fight illegal human trafficking, organized crime and gangs, and expand intelligence sharing and fortify border security.
She said the region is facing a humanitarian and security crisis, adding that "I want to thank my colleagues for their determination to increase cooperation with respect to caravans."
She called on security ministers from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras "to show a bold leadership to stop the formation of new caravans."
In recent months thousands of Central Americans have moved in caravans toward the U.S. border. Those in the caravans repeatedly say they are fleeing violence and poverty and hope to apply for refugee status in the United States.
"The caravans are a new phenomenon," Nielsen said. "We are working together to understand their purpose, their plans, and make sure that those who are vulnerable contained within them are protected."
That was an apparent reference to migrants bringing children along on the caravans, in part because U.S. authorities have to quickly release them.
from a Turkish (ally of Madaro) newspaper)
[Hurriyet] Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters noted anti Semite, anti American, pro Chavez/Madaro
hit out at Richard Branson on Feb. 18 over plans to hold a humanitarian aid concert to benefit Venezuelans suffering from shortages of food and medicines.
Branson announced last week he is organizing a fundraising concert in Colombia on Feb. 22 featuring stars such as former Genesis singer Peter Gabriel to raise "$100 million" for "those millions that need it the most."
"I have friends in Caracas right now, there is so far no civil war, no mayhem, no murder, no apparent dictatorship, no mass imprisonment of opposition, no suppresion of the press," said Waters in a post liked 12,000 times.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/21/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
A very vocal old man. Showing his age. Media has been promoting him lately. Perhaps a useful tool.
#2
"I have friends in Caracas right now, there is so far no civil war, no mayhem, no murder, no apparent dictatorship, no mass imprisonment of opposition, no suppresion (SIC) of the press," said Waters in a post liked 12,000 times.
#3
Big Pink Floyd fan. I'm not sure when he became an anti-semitic nut but I've always thought that losing his father at Anzio in WW2 (see "When the Tigers Broke Free") had something to do with it. Assuming the story in the song is semi-autobiographical that is.
[DAWN] The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on Wednesday incarcerated Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani from a hotel in Islamabad, DawnNewsTV reported citing officials from within the bureau.
The arrested speaker has left Islamabad and is enroute to Karachi, in the custody of three NAB officials.
According to NAB officials, Durrani faces an inquiry for accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income as well as allegations that he had embezzled public funds.
NAB officials told DawnNewsTV that the bureau waited for Durrani to leave Sindh before making the arrest as Durrani is escorted by his sizable security team in his home province and the bureau feared a confrontation would turn violent.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Quetta Gladiators won their third consecutive match on Wednesday against the Multan Home of the Multan Sultans... Sultans in their 2019 Pakistain Super League fixture at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The side cruised to victory with a power show by Rossouw and Watson who posted 67* and 61 runs respectively.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2019 00:00 ||
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h/t Instapundit
[Spectrum.ieee] The commercial space business has blossomed over the past decade. Two companies, though, have grabbed the spotlight, emerging as the most ambitious of them all: Blue Origin and SpaceX.
At first glance, these two companies look a lot alike. They are both led by billionaires who became wealthy from the Internet: Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin earned his fortune from Amazon.com, and Elon Musk of SpaceX got rich initially from Web-based businesses, notably PayPal. Both companies are developing large, reusable launch vehicles capable of carrying people and satellites for government and commercial customers. And both are motivated by almost messianic visions of humanity’s future beyond Earth. This coming year, we’ll likely see some major milestones as these two titans continue to jockey for position.
Over the past few years, SpaceX has become one of the most active launch companies on the planet. In 2018 alone, SpaceX performed 21 launches, representing about 20 percent of roughly 100 worldwide launches.
The company stands out in another way‐it’s the only one to recover and reuse its rockets. Landings of its Falcon 9 first stages have gone from being novelties, often with explosive failures, to a routine aspect of most missions. Last May, SpaceX introduced its latest version of the Falcon 9, called the Block 5, the first stage of which is designed to be flown 10 or more times.
Although the Falcon 9 will be SpaceX’s workhorse for years to come, the company added a new vehicle to its stable three months before introducing the Block 5. Last February, the company launched the first Falcon Heavy, which includes three Falcon 9 first stages lined up in a row. The Falcon Heavy is capable of placing more than 60 metric tons into low Earth orbit, far more than any existing launch vehicle can accomplish.
But even the Falcon Heavy pales in comparison with what SpaceX is now developing, a vehicle that until recently was called the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR. (The R-rated interpretation of that acronym wasn’t lost on the rocket’s developers, who initially used it as the informal code name for the project.) In late November, Musk announced a name change for the BFR‐to Starship for the crewed upper stage, and Super Heavy for the lower booster stage. That booster will have 31 of the company’s Raptor engines, which are under development, while Starship will be outfitted with seven Raptor engines. Both stages are intended to be reusable, and Starship will be able to carry dozens of people to destinations far beyond Earth orbit.
SpaceX has modified the design of this colossal vehicle a couple of times since conceiving it in 2016. The most recent version was described at a press conference this past September at the company’s California headquarters. This version, Musk said, would be able to place 100 metric tons on the surface of Mars, provided that the spaceship’s upper stage was refueled in Earth orbit before departing for the Red Planet.
"I think it looks beautiful," he added, noting the similarity to a fictional rocket ship of graphic-novel fame. "I love the Tintin rocket design, so I kind of wanted to bias it towards that."
Speaking in early September at an event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, SpaceX’s chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, said that the company will begin making the first "hop tests" of the BFR’s upper stage (Starship) in late 2019.
Blue Origin, by contrast, has yet to launch anything at all into orbit. But the company has similarly big ambitions. It’s working on a rocket it calls New Glenn (named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth), which is scheduled to launch for the first time in 2021. The two-stage rocket will be able to place 45 metric tons into low Earth orbit, with its first stage designed to land on a ship at sea and be reused up to 25 times.
"We’re in build mode right now," said Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin, during a space policy workshop in Washington, D.C., this past October. The company has completed a new 70,000-square-meter (750,000-square-foot) factory for constructing the rocket just outside the gates of the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, and it’s currently building a testing and refurbishment facility nearby, which is expected to be completed in early 2019. Blue Origin is also modifying a dormant launchpad at nearby Cape Canaveral for its operations and has signed up several commercial customers for New Glenn.
h/t Instapundit
[USAToday] The old yearbook photos capture the lighthearted moments from college worth remembering ‐ smiling faces, pep rallies and cans of cheap beer.
But tucked in and among those same pages are pictures of students dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes and blackface, nooses and mock lynchings, displays of racism not hidden but memorialized as jokes to laugh about later.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a stunning number of colleges and university yearbooks published images of blatant racism on campus, the USA TODAY Network found in a review of 900 publications at 120 schools across the country. IMO, it was people
- white and black making a joke of the evil past - which, they believed, is gone for ever.
#3
Before these news stories, I had honestly never even heard of a college yearbook. I thought they only did it for high schools and maybe a few junior highs.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The South African] South Africa celebrates Armed Forces Day on 21 February in remembrance of the SS Mendi tragedy which occurred more than a century ago.
[NYT] PAMPLONA, Colombia ‐ The walking began before dawn: before the clouds broke against the mountaintops, before the trucks took over the highway, even before anyone in the town woke up to check the vacant lot where scores of Venezuelan refugees had been huddling through the night.
Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy...
